[fantasyfan]

I don't know how many will agree with me but I don't think that this is really a love story at all; instead, it's a rather dark portrait of selfish destructive sexual obsession. Consider the following points {I've put them in spoilers for those who haven't finished the book}

Spoiler:

1. Ariza, in effect, stalks a teen-age girl.
2. He has a number of odd relationships--some of which seem to be motivated by something close to love but he never seems able to make a commitment.
3. {IMO} He has a moral responsibility for América Vicuña's suicide and betrays his position as a guardian.
4. Fermina Daza really seems to have worked out a satisfactory relationship with Juvenal Urbino, who despite his narrowness does a great deal of good for the community. He also makes one of the most significant statements about the nature of marriage and love:

"Always remember that the most important thing in a good marriage is not happiness but stability."

5. While Fermina does not, at first, understand this view, she changes in the end when she realises that it " . . . was the lodestone that had given them so many happy hours."
6. It's interesting that the book begins with a suicide and has another near the end and both have links {albeit of quite different types} to a love relationship.

So I feel the significance of the title is that love is itself a disease--as seems to be made clear at the end.

What do some of the rest of you think?